ANNOUNCING...WebCHECK: The Web Site Evaluation Instrument The Center for Digital Literacy at Syracuse University is pleased to launch WebCHECK: The Website Evaluation Instrument (aka WebCHECK), funded by an Institute for Museum & Library Services SPARKS! Ignition Grant. Questions or comments? Contact Dr. Ruth Small, Project Director at drruth@syr.edu<mailto:drruth@syr.edu> What is WebCHECK? * WebCHECK is a series of instruments that were designed for educators, Web designers, professional development instructors, and students. * It can be used by general and special educators, librarians, and administrators to assess Web sites for teaching and learning and by individuals or groups of students to learn the importance of evaluating Internet resources and to assess Web sites they use for assignments and projects.
What WebCHECK instruments make up the series? * WebCHECK Professional, designed for educators and Web designers to use for (1) assessing the quality of Web sites used for assignments and learning activities and (2) determining how to improve the quality of locally-designed personal, classroom, library and/or school Websites. * WebCHECK Senior, designed for high school students (grades 9-12) * WebCHECK Middle, designed for middle school students (grade 5-8) * WebCHECK Junior, designed for elementary school students (grades 2-4) * WebCHECK for Facilitors, designed for K-12 educators, administrators and higher education faculty to use when assigning a single Web site to be evaluated by groups or classes of students or by educators in an in-service or professional development workshop.
What makes WebCHECK unique: * based on a foundation of instructional design and motivation theory. * available online, fully automated, and free. * both fun and easy-to-use. * a powerful instructional and learning tool. * generates a full evaluation report to share results with teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc. * uses graphs for visual representation of scores and text for details and interpretations. * On the WebCHECK Web site, you will find all of the instruments, as well as more than 30 lesson plans, designed by school librarians nationwide, that incorporate WebCHECK at various levels and subject areas.
How do I use WebCHECK? 1. Go to the site at www.mywebcheck.net 2. If you are using WebCHECK with students, thoroughly read the Notes to Educators as it contains essential information for using these instruments with your students. For example there are vocabulary words and skills (e.g., graphing) that should be taught or reviewed before using WebCHECK with students. 3. Decide if you will use WebCHECK with individuals or with a group or class. If a group of class, choose WebCHECK for Facilitators and follow the directions for group/class use. 4. Design and implement a lesson or use/adapt one of the lesson plans on the site.
Ruth V. Small, Ph.D.
Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor
Director, Center for Digital Literacy
Co-Editor, School Library Research
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University
Since the publication last fall of my Media Center column "Data Gathering—Why You Need the Numbers ... And What You Can Do with Them," I have received many questions from readers asking for more information about how to set up a spreadsheet for gathering data that depicts media program activity. As described in the September/October 2004 issue of MultiMedia & Internet@Schools (the article is available online at http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9324), the spreadsheet we've used for years has both qualitative and quantitative data, including:
* -Number of daily classes using the media center/labs
* -List or description of class activities that week
* -Total weekly students in classes (number of classes times average class size)
* --Total weekly students (numbers in classes plus a factor for average daily drop-in)
This past spring, some of our data was very publicly shared by administrators speaking at school board meetings and in letters to the editor of the local newspapers, including one by a school board member. This showed very clearly that people do pay attention to data and that data does have an impact. In this case, the data was used to argue for improved media center facilities and resources at another school in our district.
Getting Started
So how do you begin? You will need a spreadsheet program such as Excel and knowledge of a few basic spreadsheet operations:
* -Creating and saving a new spreadsheet (Excel calls them workbooks)
* -Naming the sheet tabs at the bottom of the page
* --Entering text and numbers in columns and rows
* -Adjusting the height and width of columns and rows
* -Using Excel toolbars (drawing, standard, formatting, formula) and the formatting palette
* -Formatting text and numbers
* -Performing two basic calculations—sum and average
* -The Auto Fill command to repeat formulas and enter numbers in a series
* -Printing the portion of your spreadsheet you wish to share as hard copy and as PDF if you choose to put it on your Web site.
The 24-step getting-started directions included with this article (see Figure 1) assume a basic working knowledge of Excel. I've included what to put in each of the column headers, a few tech tips, and a comment. You can add additional columns as needed. For example, one additional column might be used to highlight media center management tasks.
When it's time to share your spreadsheet, take the time to dress it up. Refer to Figure 2 for tips about enhancing your spreadsheet and printing. To take a look at an example of a spreadsheet with data entered for 2 weeks, see Figure 3.
Get in the habit now of keeping your data current by making daily notes of what you do. Have fun!
Mary Alice Anderson is a frequent contributor to professional journals and is available as a conference and workshop presenter. In addition to working for Winona Area Public Schools in Minnesota, she is an online adjunct instructor with the Online Professional Development for Educators Program in the School of Education at University of Wisconsin-Stout [http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/issues/]. Her personal Web site can be found athttp://www.homepage.mac.com/Maryalicea/Sites/Anderson/Anderson.html. Communications to the author may be sent to maryalicea@mac.com.
RONDA'S CORNER
Stats for September
MARY ANN'S MEANDERINGS
Neil Gaiman on why we need Libraries
Teaching Kids to be their own Internet filter
Crash Course in Copyright from the University of Texas Libraries
ANNOUNCING...WebCHECK: The Web Site Evaluation Instrument
The Center for Digital Literacy at Syracuse University is pleased to launch WebCHECK: The Website Evaluation Instrument (aka WebCHECK), funded by an Institute for Museum & Library Services SPARKS! Ignition Grant. Questions or comments? Contact Dr. Ruth Small, Project Director at drruth@syr.edu<mailto:drruth@syr.edu>
What is WebCHECK?
* WebCHECK is a series of instruments that were designed for educators, Web designers, professional development instructors, and students.
* It can be used by general and special educators, librarians, and administrators to assess Web sites for teaching and learning and by individuals or groups of students to learn the importance of evaluating Internet resources and to assess Web sites they use for assignments and projects.
What WebCHECK instruments make up the series?
* WebCHECK Professional, designed for educators and Web designers to use for (1) assessing the quality of Web sites used for assignments and learning activities and (2) determining how to improve the quality of locally-designed personal, classroom, library and/or school Websites.
* WebCHECK Senior, designed for high school students (grades 9-12)
* WebCHECK Middle, designed for middle school students (grade 5-8)
* WebCHECK Junior, designed for elementary school students (grades 2-4)
* WebCHECK for Facilitors, designed for K-12 educators, administrators and higher education faculty to use when assigning a single Web site to be evaluated by groups or classes of students or by educators in an in-service or professional development workshop.
What makes WebCHECK unique:
* based on a foundation of instructional design and motivation theory.
* available online, fully automated, and free.
* both fun and easy-to-use.
* a powerful instructional and learning tool.
* generates a full evaluation report to share results with teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc.
* uses graphs for visual representation of scores and text for details and interpretations.
* On the WebCHECK Web site, you will find all of the instruments, as well as more than 30 lesson plans, designed by school librarians nationwide, that incorporate WebCHECK at various levels and subject areas.
How do I use WebCHECK?
1. Go to the site at www.mywebcheck.net
2. If you are using WebCHECK with students, thoroughly read the Notes to Educators as it contains essential information for using these instruments with your students. For example there are vocabulary words and skills (e.g., graphing) that should be taught or reviewed before using WebCHECK with students.
3. Decide if you will use WebCHECK with individuals or with a group or class. If a group of class, choose WebCHECK for Facilitators and follow the directions for group/class use.
4. Design and implement a lesson or use/adapt one of the lesson plans on the site.
Ruth V. Small, Ph.D.
Laura J. & L. Douglas Meredith Professor
Director, Center for Digital Literacy
Co-Editor, School Library Research
School of Information Studies, Syracuse University
105 Hinds Hall
Syracuse, New York 13244-4100
drruth@syr.edu<mailto:drruth@syr.edu>; 315/443-6144
***
Since the publication last fall of my Media Center column "Data Gathering—Why You Need the Numbers ... And What You Can Do with Them," I have received many questions from readers asking for more information about how to set up a spreadsheet for gathering data that depicts media program activity. As described in the September/October 2004 issue of MultiMedia & Internet@Schools (the article is available online at http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=9324), the spreadsheet we've used for years has both qualitative and quantitative data, including:
* -Number of daily classes using the media center/labs
* -List or description of class activities that week
* -Total weekly students in classes (number of classes times average class size)
* --Total weekly students (numbers in classes plus a factor for average daily drop-in)
* -Media specialist instructional activities
* -Weekly totals
* -Daily averages
* --Special events (book fair, staff development, meetings, etc.)
This past spring, some of our data was very publicly shared by administrators speaking at school board meetings and in letters to the editor of the local newspapers, including one by a school board member. This showed very clearly that people do pay attention to data and that data does have an impact. In this case, the data was used to argue for improved media center facilities and resources at another school in our district.
Getting Started
So how do you begin? You will need a spreadsheet program such as Excel and knowledge of a few basic spreadsheet operations:
* -Creating and saving a new spreadsheet (Excel calls them workbooks)
* -Naming the sheet tabs at the bottom of the page
* --Entering text and numbers in columns and rows
* -Adjusting the height and width of columns and rows
* -Using Excel toolbars (drawing, standard, formatting, formula) and the formatting palette
* -Formatting text and numbers
* -Performing two basic calculations—sum and average
* -The Auto Fill command to repeat formulas and enter numbers in a series
* -Printing the portion of your spreadsheet you wish to share as hard copy and as PDF if you choose to put it on your Web site.
The 24-step getting-started directions included with this article (see Figure 1) assume a basic working knowledge of Excel. I've included what to put in each of the column headers, a few tech tips, and a comment. You can add additional columns as needed. For example, one additional column might be used to highlight media center management tasks.
When it's time to share your spreadsheet, take the time to dress it up. Refer to Figure 2 for tips about enhancing your spreadsheet and printing. To take a look at an example of a spreadsheet with data entered for 2 weeks, see Figure 3.
Get in the habit now of keeping your data current by making daily notes of what you do. Have fun!
Mary Alice Anderson is a frequent contributor to professional journals and is available as a conference and workshop presenter. In addition to working for Winona Area Public Schools in Minnesota, she is an online adjunct instructor with the Online Professional Development for Educators Program in the School of Education at University of Wisconsin-Stout [http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/issues/]. Her personal Web site can be found athttp://www.homepage.mac.com/Maryalicea/Sites/Anderson/Anderson.html. Communications to the author may be sent to maryalicea@mac.com.